Four years into its life as a business, Preston-based Wheels Up North is motoring towards success by bringing car enthusiasts together throughout the year.

Founded by Harry Tagg, from Cottam, Wheels Up North is an organiser of automotive shows with a community ethos at its heart.

Harry, along with director Matt Owen, is aiming is to host up to 12 events across the north of England this year, ranging from their main ‘weekender’ in South Cumbria, to the events they hold at Longridge Showground and farm attraction Mrs Dowson’s at Clayton-le-Dale, to their recent ventures in conjunction with Porsche Centre South Lakes.

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For Harry, whose background is in marketing, the idea to become an automotive events organiser originally came from a client in the south of England.

Harry said: “He was doing these sorts of shows down south and I became interested and he really encouraged me to pursue the idea up here in the North.

“When we started at Longridge with a meet up that is how I thought it would stay, as just a gathering of car enthusiasts. But then we grew to having 400 to 500 cars at that event, I could see there was a good business forming.”

With a two-day weekend event in South Lakes and events throughout the year, Harry says the growth of the business since it started in 2021 has been both pleasing, and somewhat surprising.

“I did not see it it getting this big this quickly, ” he added. “The idea was just to do these meets, but when Matt came into the firm with his business background it really helped us push things forward.”

With cars and motorbikes spanning many eras at their events, Harry says his personal favourites tend to be some of 1990s Japanese models, as well as two classic Minis that he bought to help market the business.

But as much as Wheels Up North is a celebration of the cars themselves, it is also a chance for a community of car enthusiasts to come together and look out for another as people.

Having raised more than £5,000 for mental health charity Lancashire Mind during last year’s events, Harry is hopeful of doubling that figure in 2025.

He said: “The mental side of things is really important within car culture and we work with Ben Pearson, of TV show Police Interceptors, and he talks a lot about dealing with PTSD and men’s mental health.

“For a lot of people, car culture is an escape from their day-to-day lives and is a way of them prioritising their mental health and we want to support that.”

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